The present invention relates to novel imidazole derivatives, more particularly it relates to novel imidazole derivatives having anti-retrovirus activity and pharmaceutical compositions effective for the treatment of retrovirus infections such as human immunodeficiency syndromes.
AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is caused by a member of retrovirus, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In spite of great efforts made by researches, there have been no effective methods for treating AIDS so far and the disease is becoming a more and more serious problem.
It has been reported that pyrimidine nucleoside compounds can be useful anti-retrovirus agents because of the inhibitory activity against the reverse transcription of RNA of retroviruses and many compounds have been synthesized. Among them, azidodeoxythymidine (AZT) has been practically used for treating AIDS. AZT, however, cannot be used broadly due to its high toxicity. Accordingly, the development of anti-HIV compounds which are highly effective and less toxic has been demanded strongly.
It has been reported that acyclovir, an acyclonucleoside derivative, has an inhibitory effect on herpes virus and hence a lot of acyclonucleosides with various side chains were synthesized [J. Heterocyclic Chem. 23, 289 (1986)]. The literature failed to mention about activities against retrovirus.